I have a laptop that I can't do shit with

My sisters friend gave her a Dell Inspiron 1501, which she then gave to me. But her friend wiped the hard drive but never actually restored it to factory settings, leaving me to only be able to use a guest account because I don't know the admin name or password.

I've tried everything to restore it to factory settings but can't figure out how. Does ANYONE have an idea on how to do it?

i remember back in the day you could bypass peoples passwords by booting into safemode and going to the controlpanel>users accounts> and editing their information


try it out

Dude i had the same problem a couple months ago.. There's a software i found somewhere on google that you can put on a cd then put it in before you boot your computer and it bypass's all passwords. use google if i found it then you can to

Obviously the hard drive has not been wiped out if it still has a password protected account.

There are a few different free programs out there that can extract user passwords. Google "bypass windows password". I'm sure youtube will have many guides and links.

several linux based live-cd's with widows password cracking software ready to run. find a flavor and burn a disk.

have paper and pen handy when you get it ready, so as to write down all the account names and passwords.


alternate route, look up a recover disk set on the dell sight, using hte laptops model and serial number. typical cost is 20ish bucks and you have a perfect set of disk to reset the entire hard drive to factory new (hidden partitions and all) <---suggested route if you have a spare 20...

That laptop is pretty shitty anyways wouldn't be able to do much with it..

make it a porn laptop so you can visit shady sites and not have to worry about viruses.

My sisters friend gave her a Dell Inspiron 1501, which she then gave to me. But her friend wiped the hard drive but never actually restored it to factory settings, leaving me to only be able to use a guest account because I don't know the admin name or password.

I've tried everything to restore it to factory settings but can't figure out how. Does ANYONE have an idea on how to do it?

You can download an ISO for the UBCD for Windows. Insure the CD player is first in the Boot Order. When the menu options come up run the password removal program.
Blank the admin password (sometimes changing it doesn't work).
Be sure you save the settings.
Sometimes you need to do this twice.

If you want to restore it to factory (afterwards) this should work:

As the computer restarts, press the F8 key until the Advanced Boot Options menu appears on the screen.
Note: You must press F8 before the Windows logo appears on the screen. If you press F8 after the Windows logo appears, the Advanced Boot Options menu does not appear on the screen. If you do not see the Advanced Boot Options menu, restart the computer, and then repeat this step until you see the menu on the screen.

Press the (Down Arrow) to select Repair Your Computer on the Advanced Boot Options menu, and then press Enter.

Specify the language settings that you want, and then click Next.

Log in as a user who has administrative credentials, and then click OK.

Click Dell Factory Image Restore.

In the Dell Factory Image Restore window, click Next.

Click to select the check box for Yes, reformat hard drive and restore system software to factory condition.

Click Next. The computer is restored to the default factory configuration.

When the restore operation is completed, click Finish to restart the computer

It doesn't have the repair my computer option ^^

I've tried everything.

It doesn't have the repair my computer option ^^

I've tried everything.

You may get admin access with the UBCD4Windows disk.

Any chance there is an option for
System Image Restore option ?

Try the All programs to see if there is a All Programs, click Dell DataSafe Local Backup 2.0 and click Dell DataSafe Local Backup 2.0.

If so follow this article:
Creating Your System Recovery Discs with Dell DataSafe Local Backup 2.0 | Dell

Download the liveCD version of Ophcrack and burn it to a cd or put it on a flash drive. (google how to do it)

Offline Windows Password & Registry Editor

Offline Windows Password & Registry Editor

That's the name ^^

a way to reset almost any laptop to factory settings...

(computer turned off)

-while turned off, press and hold zero
- keep zero held down and turn on your computer
- you'll hear a loud beep, after beep is over, you can let go of the zero
-you'll see an option to continue with factory recovery or somethin like that
- you should be able to figure it out from there

edit: I did this when I upgraded from vista to windows 7 ultimate from a torrent. I'm not sure about dells though, I have a toshiba. windows none the less. might work for you.

Edited by OrigPurpleHaze, 08 June 2012 - 08:21 PM.

Well they either didnt wipe the HDD right oe.just delete all her shit on it. Just reinstall windows. /thread

Yeah. Just reinstall windows. The serial key for it should be on the sticker on the underside. Just torrent the appropriate version ISO for it, (not precracked), burn it to DVD, and then enter that same key.

i remember back in the day you could bypass peoples passwords by booting into safemode and going to the controlpanel>users accounts> and editing their information


try it out

This. Just hard reset it over and over (pull the battery, or maybe just hold power until it turns off) and evetually it will ask you like:

BOOT INTO SAFE MODE
BOOT INTO SAFE MODE (WITH NETWORKING)
BOOT INTO SAFE MODE (WITH COMMAND PROMPT)

START WINDOWS NORMALLY



Then just choose regular safe mode, go into the Administrator account (sometimes its seperate from the other account thats locked), then control panel and remove her password. Restart and get into her junk

I would just wipe the HDD, install Ubuntu and stay with ubuntu. Will probably run better anyways....

How to Crack Your Forgotten Windows Password - How-To Geek

or

http://pogostick.net/~pnh/ntpasswd/

The first will attempt to crack the password. That's good if for whatever reason you want the real password.

But, I recommend the second since it just removes the need for a password. A while back, one of my friends died and it was his computer and his mom couldn't get into his computer since he had a password on it. So I used this to get into to it without having to delete all the files he had on it. It basically just removes the need to put a password in. Like when you try to log in it'll just go straight to the desktop without asking you anything.

Edited by mjman007, 08 July 2012 - 03:58 PM.

You shouldn't need to crack the password.. Just load to a recovery partition on the laptop, delete the current windows partition on the hard drive and start from factory settings. There should be a sticker somewhere on the laptop with the windows key on it.